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Durham Cathedral’s Library can be traced back to the community of St Cuthbert originating in the 7th century at Lindisfarne. After fleeing Holy Island after Viking invasion, they settled in Durham in 995 bringing with them, alongside the body of Cuthbert and his sacred relics, their most precious manuscripts and scholarly works. In 1093, the Normans settled in Durham, establishing a Benedictine Community of Monks, and after the dissolution of the priory in 1539, the cathedral was re-founded under a dean and chapter who inherited much of what survived of the priory’s collection of manuscripts and printed books.

Durham Cathedral maintains the most complete in-situ medieval monastic library in Britain, built around these 308 surviving manuscripts and volumes, and also retains a collection of over 30,000 early printed books dating from the 16th to the 19th century. It also holds a manuscript music collection mostly comprising part-books used by the cathedral choir from the 17th to the 19th century, and printed secular and instrumental music. The post-1851 Chapter collection specialises in church history, local history, bibliography and architecture. We also maintain a modern theological lending library of around 15,000 titles on behalf of the Lord Crewe Trust.

The Cathedral also retains a substantial Archive, one of the most complete and extensive monastic archives to survive in Britain in its original location. Our colleagues at Durham University Library manage the Archives on our behalf. Among the many treasures held in the Archives, the Cathedral remains unique in holding three engrossments of the Magna Carta, alongside their corresponding Charters of the Forest – from 1216, 1225 and 1300.

The library is perhaps somewhat unique in that it retains responsibility not only for the paper and parchment collections owned by the Cathedral, but for all of its objects too. We care for tens of thousands of artefacts of historical, cultural, and religious significance including paintings, carved stones, textiles, metalwork, and even whale bones. The collections date as far back as the Anglo-Saxon period, and include the holy relics of St Cuthbert.

My role as Head of Collections is a busy one, overseeing the management of two Reading Rooms in order to facilitate access to the library collections (modern and historic), and since July, also having oversight of the Cathedral’s Open Treasure exhibition spaces. The claustral spaces have been opened to the public to host an interactive display showcasing the history of the Cathedral, the life of St Cuthbert and the many facets of life in a monastic community. We have also developed new exhibition galleries which will allow us to display many of the Cathedral’s treasured manuscripts and artefacts in environmentally controlled conditions. It’s an exciting opportunity to not only permanently display the relics of St Cuthbert in a beautiful environment which will help protect the objects, but also to be able to manage an ever-changing exhibition programme to allow people to see the wide range of objects held by the Cathedral. More information can be found here: https://www.durhamcathedral.co.uk/open-treasure.

To support Open Treasure, and to complement the exhibitions, new outreach programmes have been developed. The library plays a lead role through hosting visits from reading groups, displaying volumes from the collections which will hopefully inspire further learning and interest.

We will also contribute to the Education team’s Young Curator’s group. Targeting 11-15 year olds, the programme will teach children all about the art of creating an exhibition, to mirror those the Cathedral are creating.

The collections have traditionally been made available in a broader sense in a variety of ways.

Library staff undertake numerous displays and tours for all sorts of groups and to the public on a dizzying array of subjects – catering for coach parties, architecture and medieval manuscript students, specialist academics attending study days during Holy Week, potential donors, and on open days to the public.

Our visitors appreciate the opportunity to see material which is usually locked away and out of sight – it can inspire that desire to learn more and widen access to the collections in the most positive of ways, adding an extra understanding to people’s concepts about the Cathedral and its wider role.

While Open Treasure will keep us even busier, we welcome the opportunity to showcase our collections in a beautiful and environmentally stable location. If you ever find yourself in Durham, please let us know. We would be delighted to show you around.

Lisa Di Tommaso Head of Collections

All images copyright the Chapter of Durham Cathedral and Peter Burmann and reproduced with the kind permission of the copyright holders.

Jisc is offering two one-day workshops to help you increase the reach of your digital collections, optimise them for discovery and evaluate their impact.

Exploiting digital collections in learning, teaching and research will be held on Tuesday 15 November.

Making Google work for your digital collections will be held on Tuesday 22 November.

If your organisation has digital collections, or plans to develop them, our workshops will help you maximize the reach of those collections online, demonstrate the impact of their usage, and help you build for future sustainability. They will equip you with the knowledge and skills to:

• Increase the visibility of your digital collections for use in learning, teaching and research
• Encourage collaboration between curators and users of digital collections
• Strategically promote your digital collections in appropriate contexts, for a range of audiences
• Optimise your collection for discovery via Google and other search tools
• Use web analytics to track and monitor access and usage of your digital collections
• Evaluate impact and realise the benefits of investment in your digital collection

Who should attend?

Anyone working in education and research, who manages, supports and/or promotes digital collections for teaching, learning and research. Those working in similar roles in libraries, archives and museums would also benefit.

Both workshops will be held at Jisc office, Brettenham House, London and will offer a mix of discussion, practical activities and post-workshop resources to support online resource discovery activities.

A couple of months ago I was asked by Copac to write a piece about the Library that I work in, and I was only too happy to oblige as I can proudly say I work in a very special library, which I’d love to tell you more about…

My name is Emma, and I’m the Deputy Librarian at the Library of the Zoological Society of London. We’re situated just on the edge of Regent’s Park, next to London Zoo, and we are one of the largest (and oldest) zoological libraries in the world! We have in the region of 200,000 items on our shelves, comprising of about 40,000 books, 5000 journal titles, along with art works and archives, all of which are related to the study of zoology. We also have nearly 20,000 unique records on Copac, demonstrating how unusual some of the items in our collection are.

ZSL Library interior

You may have noticed that I tend to stress that the Library is part of the Zoological Society of London, and that’s because ZSL is made up of many departments working together on a range of projects, across the globe. ZSL is comprised of not only London Zoo, but also Whipsnade Zoo, and very importantly the huge team of scientists and conservationists that make up two departments called the Institute of Zoology and Conservation Programmes. The Library has the challenging task of trying to support the needs of the staff in all of these areas (many of whom are overseas) ranging from ordering books about the naked mole rat for Keeper staff here in London, to helping with literature searching about the red panda for our colleagues out in Nepal! The Library is also open to members of the public, with the hope that we might inspire an enthusiasm for the conservation of animals.

Also, people are often surprised to find out that the Zoological Society of London has a rich history – a history that the Library has been intertwined with from ZSL’s founding in 1826. In 1826, an ambitious man named Sir Stamford Raffles founded ZSL to meet the needs of the growing zoological community. One of the obvious aims was to create a living collection of animals, but another very important goal was to create a leading zoological library. In the early days the library had various locations across London, including Leicester Square and Hannover Square, but by 1910 it was decided that the library should be closer to the living animal collection in Regent’s Park, and from that day on is where the Library has remained.

To give an idea of the kind of material ZSL Library holds, we wanted to share with you some of the highlights of the collection, but it has been proving very difficult to select just a few as there are so many to choose from! So I hope you don’t mind that I’ve selected a few that are my personal favourites, and hopefully you can see why.

Konrad Gessner was a Swiss naturalist, who was trying to describe all of the animals that were known (and unknown) at the time, and his 5 book work, Historiae animalium, is the culmination of his efforts. In these books can be found descriptions of mammals, birds, fish and reptiles – some accurate, but some curious, like this ‘giraffe’ below. This is also one of our oldest books in the Library.

The Library also contains a unique archival collection relating to the history of ZSL, and one of our more heavily consulted items is a series of volumes called Daily Occurrences. They record the comings and goings of animals at both London and Whipsnade Zoos, from both of the zoos foundation to the present day (admittedly the current ones are electronic). This particular page shows the arrival of one of the stars London Zoo – Jumbo the Elephant.

Daily Occurrences – 26th June 1865

Illustrations of the family of Psittacidae, or parrots, the greater part of them species hitherto unfigured… / by Edward Lear (1812-1888). – London : Lear, 1832

Edward Lear is most commonly known for his ‘nonsense poetry’ (i.e. the Owl and the Pussycat), but Lear was also a phenomenally talented artist whose skill influenced the style of others, such as the ornithologist John Gould and his wife Elizabeth. One of Lear’s most beautiful works is his volume on the family of parrots, of which the illustrations were based on the birds in ZSL’s parrot house.

Illustrations of the family of Psittacidae, or parrots, the greater part of them species hitherto unfigured… / by Edward Lear (1812-1888). – London : Lear, 1832.

ZSL Library welcomes members of the public, as well as Staff and Fellows of the ZSL. As well as being able to make use of our resources, we usually have something of interest on display and there are always paintings and sculptures to admire in the Reading Room. To find out more please email library@zsl.org or consult our web pages http://www.zsl.org/about-us/zsl-library-collection. Don’t forget to follow on Twitter @ZSLArts

Founder’s Library at Royal Holloway, University of London. Image copyright: Royal Holloway, University of London.

Royal Holloway College, originally a women-only college, was founded by the Victorian entrepreneur, Thomas Holloway in 1879. The campus is set in 135 acres of woodland near Windsor, and is acknowledged as one of the country’s most appealing campuses, offering a close-knit community based location with close proximity to London.

Royal Holloway Library Services occupies two sites on campus – the Bedford Library, opened by The Princess Royal in 1993, houses resources for Science, Social Sciences and History, while the Founder’s Library, located within the magnificent Founder’s Building, modelled on the Chateau de Chambord and opened by Queen Victoria in 1886, houses Languages, Literatures, Cinema, Theatre, Fine Arts and Music. Currently under construction is a new Library and Student Services building due to open in 2017. This will dramatically expand our library and study space, provide flexible learning and public spaces and a dedicated study area for PhD students. It will also provide a purpose-built storage space for Royal Holloway’s art and archives, as well as the Library’s Special Collections.

The Library’s book collections extend to some 600,000 volumes. There are subscriptions to more than 17,000 e-journals; more than 800,000 items are loaned each year and there is an annual footfall of about 700,000.

To browse, or limit your search to the Royal Holloway, University of London Library, go to the main tab on copac.jisc.ac.uk and choose ‘Royal Holloway, University of London Library’ from the list of libraries.

The National Aerospace Library (NAL) in Farnborough is one of the most prestigious aerospace and aeronautical library collections in the world. Collections contain contemporary and historical material exploring man’s dream to conquer flight including:

More than 130 current journals are available with over 35,000 articles indexed on the online catalogue.

The NAL cares for the Royal Aeronautical Society (RAeS) Library and Archives. Since the Society’s foundation in 1866, the RAeS Library has incorporated many other personal and corporate collections and, in so doing, has preserved them for the nation, with their earliest book dating back to 1515.

Special collections include: balloons, airships, air charts, aircraft models and aviation philately. Archives include the records of the Royal Aeronautical Society and the Society of Society of British Aircraft Constructors and the personal collections of Sir George Cayley, C. G. Grey and the design drawings of F.S. Barnwell.

Photographs and images include: over 100,000 photographs, lithographs and other images. There are over 40,000 technical reports from around the world, including those published by the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE), NASA and ARC. Also, material on aircraft production including company and staff journals and company brochures.

To browse, or limit your search to the National Aerospace Library, go to the main tab on copac.jisc.ac.uk and choose ‘National Aerospace Library’ from the list of libraries.

The service is available via subscription to UK HE and FE institutions and Research Councils who are full members of Jisc Collections. Historical Texts is also available to everyone at the British Library Reading Rooms in London.*

To browse, or limit your search to Historical Texts, go to the main tab on copac.jisc.ac.uk and choose ‘Historical Texts’ from the list of libraries. When the ‘Internet Resources’ link in a Copac record is selected, you will be prompted to login with your institutional login.

Further additions to Copac from Historical Texts are planned for the future.

The Library of the Society of Friends is the library and archive of the Religious Society of Friends in Britain (Quakers). It’s responsible for the care and use of one of the largest collections in the world relating to Quaker history, thought and activities.

Its origins lie in the religious controversies of the 17th century. In 1673 a committee of Friends (the Second Day’s Morning Meeting) decided to keep two copies of every book written by Friends, and one of every book written against them. This gathering together of books and pamphlets is the foundation of the Library.

Norman Penney in Eastern dress – new librarian dress code?

When the first librarian (Norman Penney) was appointed in 1901 the books were stored in the Society’s then central offices in Devonshire House, Bishopsgate, along with the archives from the 17th century on – records of Yearly Meeting (the annual Quaker assembly), Meeting for Sufferings (the national executive body) and numerous committees. Penney was a dynamic force in starting to arrange and catalogue these burgeoning collections, which were supplemented by substantial manuscript collections formerly held in private hands.

By the time plans for the present Quaker headquarters on Euston Road were being drawn up in the 1920s, a purpose built library with strong-rooms and reading room were an integral part of the specification.

Today the Library is open to all for research, and has a varied readership of members of the Society of Friends, academic researchers, local and family historians, media researchers and others. One of its strengths (and one of the reasons it’s such a great library to work in) is the way the printed and archival collections complement each other. Users can search across both printed and archive material using the online catalogue, and, like many special libraries, the Library has developed a range of finding aids and biographical, geographic and topical subject files that draw on the different parts of the collections.

Its printed collections now include over 100,000 books, pamphlets, broadsides and other items, and around 2,000 serial titles. While the majority are Quaker publications, there are significant supporting collections, including works on Quaker history and publications in areas where Quakers have been particularly active, such as the peace and anti-slavery movements.

Bound volume of tracts (Library of the Society of Friends, Vol. 54)

What are the highlights? While other special collections may bring out lavishly illustrated books and gorgeous bindings to show off their holdings, our books are, by and large, distinguished by their sober appearance. They may lack visual sparkle, but book historians and conservators have been known to wax lyrical about some of these more humble exemplars of 17th and 18th century book production and bindings.

This lack of ornament is in keeping with the Quaker testimony of simplicity (exemplified in plainness of dress and speech), but it doesn’t mean there are no visually striking printed items in the collections. One example is George Fox’s Battle-door for teachers & professors to learn singular & plural (1660), a defence of the early Quaker use of “plain speech” (addressing all equally as thee and thou), with section heading pages printed in the shape of a battledore (the paddle shaped alphabet learning boards that succeeded hornbooks).

Anti-slavery campaigners used the power of visual imagery to great effect, in ways that are well known. This image of a plan of a slave ship was a potent way of conveying the real horror and suffering of the trade to a wide audience (read more about this particular copy, bound together with other anti-slavery material, in this post on our Quaker Strongrooms blog). The Library also holds anti-slavery china – cups and saucers bearing the anti-slavery message.

The central Quaker archives held by the Library consist of minute books, correspondence, reports and other records. Among them are the Great Books of Sufferings, 44 huge manuscript volumes compiled between 1650 and 1856, recording persecution of Quakers around the country for holding illegal meetings, non-attendance at church, or refusal to pay tithes (read more about them here). These central archives reflect Quaker involvement with wider social movements, like anti-slavery, peace, temperance, war time relief and reconstruction. Take for example the extensive records of the Friends Emergency & War Victims Relief Committee: a project to catalogue and make these more accessible has recently been completed.

World War I relief – sending out 44 mattresses from the depot, Pargary (YM/MfS/FEWVRC/PICS/8/4/4)

The Library also holds local London & Middlesex Quaker records dating back to the 17th century – a rich resource for local historians and others (including economic historians, like this PhD student who wrote about her research on the Library’s blog).

A number of other Quaker related bodies have deposited their records in the Library. One of the more substantial archives is that of the Friends Ambulance Unit (the unofficial volunteer ambulance service set up by Quakers in both World Wars to provide alternative wartime service). In preparation for the World War I centenary, the Library has made the F.A.U. 1914-1919 service cards.

Friends Ambulance Unit service card for Lionel Sharples Penrose.

Besides official records, there are considerable collections of personal papers – letters and diaries of well-known figures like George Fox or Elizabeth Fry (prison reformer, recently featured on the £5 note), and others less well-known, such as the travelling minister Abiah Darby of Coalbrookdale (1716-1794), or James Jenkins (1753-1831), illegitimate son of a Quaker, whose Records and recollections provide a sometimes waspish commentary on contemporary Quaker affairs. While the Swarthmore Manuscripts (a substantial body of about 1,400 letters and other documents of early Friends) are considered the “jewel in the crown” for historians of 17th century Quakerism, there are also rich collections of family papers for later periods, such as the Lloyd Papers or the A. Ruth Fry papers, both spanning several centuries.

Diary of Elizabeth Fry, volume 10 (MS Vol. S 264)

The Library’s printed and archival holdings are complemented by its visual collections – paintings, prints and drawings, and a remarkable photographic collection, including the photographic archives of Quaker relief work from the First World War onwards.

Contributing to Copac is one of the ways we’re making our collections known to wider audiences. For regular highlights, check out our own library blog and Facebook page.

Magic, Witches and Devils in the Early Modern World. John Rylands Library exhibition, 21 January – 21 August 2016.

This fascinating exhibition, housed within the gothic splendour of The John Rylands Library in Manchester, reveals how magic, diabolical witchcraft and ghostly encounters inspired fear and curiosity on an unprecedented scale between the 15th and 18th centuries. With stunning local, European and non-Western examples from Manchester collections, the exhibition offers an exceptionally wide-ranging window onto the supernatural world. Curated by historians Jennifer Spinks and Sasha Handley from the University of Manchester, the exhibition presents rare books, prints, manuscripts and objects that illuminate the roots of our obsession with supernatural powers and reveal a world where the Devil was understood as a very real and present danger in daily life.

The exhibition draws on the collections of the John Rylands Library, the Whitworth Art Gallery and Chetham’s Library which contain many rare books, prints, manuscripts and protective amulets that provide unique perspectives on how early modern people feared, engaged with, and sometimes found pleasure in the supernatural world. The years c.1400- c.1800 coincided with major changes in European society, from scientific developments to religious conflicts to a great increase in the number of printed publications. One of the most important changes was increasing contact with other lands. Although the exhibition focuses principally on Europe, it also includes examples of how some non-Western traditions represented and tapped into powers beyond the everyday.

The Compendium was attributed to the astrologer Michael Scot, whose infamy as a supposed magician was noted even by the famous Italian poet Dante. Intriguingly, the Scot manuscript contained strange elements of Arabic artifice. What appears to be a copy of an earlier spell, transcribed into corrupted or fake Arabic, was included as a precursor to its Latin ‘translation’. This was evidently designed to lend a sense of mystery as well as credibility to the conjurations contained within the book.

The Shahnama (Book of Kings) was an epic poem that detailed Persian history from the beginning of the world to the arrival of Islam. It appeared in many manuscript editions and generated a vibrant artistic tradition. The story of Rustam’s fourth task saw the hero enter a land populated by demons and sorcerers, where he was approached by a witch in the guise of a beautiful young woman. Realising her true nature when she recoiled at hearing the name of God, Rustam ordered her to ‘speak and show thy proper favour’. Returning to her hideous, wrinkled appearance, she was quickly put to the sword.

The Art of Dying was designed to help people achieve a good death. Images of poor deathbed performances (listed as faithlessness, despair, impatience, vainglory and avarice) were contrasted with those showing how the dying person should behave (with faith, hope, patience, humility and worldly detachment). ‘The Temptation to Avarice’ scene, for example, shows a group of demons pointing to the dying man’s possessions and loved ones, reminding him of the things he will soon leave behind.

Designed by Sir Basil Spence, the University of Sussex Library has been a central feature of academic life since the campus was established as the first of a new wave of Universities in the early 1960s.

The materials in the Library reflect the wide range of the University’s teaching and research. There are over 650,000 books and journals in its main collection, as well as government publications, audio visual materials, Archives and Rare Books. The Library has a growing number of online resources and is transitioning to a digital library environment.

The library also holds a number of Special Collections at The Keep, a state-of-the-art building and centre of excellence for conservation and preservation, representing the new generation of archive buildings in the UK. It includes:

The papers of Rudyard Kipling
The New Statesman Archive

Bloomsbury Group

Monks House Papers (Virginia Woolf).

The Mass Observation Archive containing the papers of the social research organisation of the 1930s and 40s and continues to collect new material in the present day.

To browse, or limit your search to the University of Sussex, go to the main tab on copac.jisc.ac.uk and choose ‘Sussex University’ from the list of libraries.